Soccer Headline

A goal in each half gave No. 5 Portland (7-1, 0-0 West Coast)
a 2-0 win over No. 16 Florida (4-2-1, 0-0 SEC) Friday evening in front of a Harry
A. Merlo Field crowd of 3,464.

Portland’s goals, both from freshman Danielle Foxhoven, came early and late in
the match. The Pilots scored the only goal of the opening half at 9:37.
Michelle Enyeart sent the ball into the box but the ball was deflected.
Foxhoven scored on the opportunity from six yards to give the Pilots the 1-0
lead.

The Gator turnover late in the second half gave the Pilots
the final margin. Megan Rapinoe found the ball and placed it in the box
where Foxhoven was able to score on her 1v1 situation from six yards in the 85th
minute.

The attacking players for Portland are difficult to contain,
UF Head Coach Becky Burleigh said.

“I think
their attack is really dynamic. Rapinoe is a very mobile player playing out of the
middle. At the top, Enyeart is very dangerous and Foxhoven finished the goals,”
she said. “Portland has a very dynamic attack – probably one of the most
dynamic attacks in the country.”

The Gators had some looks at the goal in the opening half,
but couldn’t find that vital last touch. In the ninth minute, Ameera
Abdullah brought the ball down the leftside of the box, but her centering
cross was just out of the reach of Megan Kerns before the UP goalkeeper
gathered it up. Just a couple of minutes later, Sarah Chapman brought
the ball down the right sideline. Her cross found Kerns in the box, but her
shot was stopped by UP’s Kelsey Davis.

The Gators’ touch improved in the second half, with more
dangerous looks at the UP goal. Freshman Lindsay Thompson gave the Pilot
crowd a scare in the 57th minute when Davis tried to punt the ball
out of the UP box. Thompson pressured Davis and the punt deflected off of
Thompson. The deflection traveled back toward the UP goal, but was wide.

The Gator had three strong looks at the goal in the
four-minute span, starting in the 68th minute. Kerns found Annis
making a diagonal run in the box. Annis took a hard shot that was deflected out
for the Gators’ first corner kick of the match. The Gator pressure continued
and Annis found the ball in the box in the 71st minute, but her shot
was just wide of the far post. Within the same minute, Annis took advantage of
the Pilot’s trouble clearing the ball , but her hard, 10-yard shot was just
high.

“I thought
we created some really good opportunities. The number of opportunities we had
weren’t that big, but I thought the quality of our opportunities were
excellent. There were three or four quality chances there and we just need to
stick those because a 1-1 game is something way different than a 1-0 game,”
Burleigh said. “The last goal they scored was the result of us taking risks and
pushing people forward. I don’t care if we lose 5-0 or 1-0; it doesn’t matter
to me. So we are going to take risks (to try to score) so that goal was the
result of us taking risks at the end.”

For the match, Portland had eight shots-on-goal to Florida’s three. Katie Fraine turned in six saves in the Gator goal, while Davis posted three for UP.

Next up, Florida
returns home to play host to its fourth consecutive National Soccer Coaches
Association of America (NSCAA) top 25 team on Sunday, Sept. 21 to face No. 25
Kansas (6-1, 0-0 Big 12). Match time is set for 1 p.m. (ET) at the James G.
Pressly Stadium and admission is free. This is the first meeting between the
two teams. The Jayhawks are coming off a 3-2 win at UCF Friday. KU opened the
season with five consecutive wins - Purdue (3-0), Auburn (2-1),
Alabama-Birmingham (5-2), SMU (1-0) and Missouri State (4-1) before suffering
its first loss last Sunday to Loyola Chicago (2-1). The match can be heard live
on www.GatorZone.com with Adam Schick and Matthew Stubbington covering the
action Sunday.